The Cat's Predicaments
by TheRedRose777
Summary: Felicia wasn't expecting any problems on her travels, especially not major, huge problems. Problems involving marines and pirates -especially ones involving a certain pirate crew. Already finding herself caught, she was in a predicament. MarcoxOC
1. Chapter 1: The Pirate Hunting Cat

Yes, this it is! The rewritten version of The Bird and The Cat(for those of you who have read it). If you are a new reader, ignore the previous comment. Haha, haha. But yes, I've changed some things and added a lot to make the plot more interesting and yada yada. I hope you'll enjoy this. :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own One Piece! I only my own beloved character and plot. :P

* * *

The Cat's Predicaments

**Chapter 1:** The Pirate Hunting Cat

Felicia wasn't really sure whether pirates were just plain stupid or fearless.

As the black haired woman watched the pirate that was out in the open and unguarded, she realized that she had forgotten one case: arrogance.

_Of course, pirates are arrogant. This is their age_, she thought.

Their age to do whatever and act however they want. Felicia had experienced it first-hand. It was a bitter thought and she had no time to think about the past right now. The woman had a pirate to catch.

...

Grabbing the black cat mask from her black messenger bag, she quickly put it on, hid her bag, and jumped off of the shadowed roof.

Landing soundly on her feet, she silently stalked the pirate; like a cat stalking a mouse.

Felicia watched the pirate as he strolled along the quiet streets with a posture that screamed arrogant. The woman mentally snorted at the thought. He won't be arrogant for long but humiliated, she thought and smiled at the sadistic thought. Oh yes, the pirate wouldn't be arrogant for long.

Felicia knew the man had been drinking. She was watching him all afternoon and she could smell the stench off of him. Knowing this, she patiently waited for the right moment to strike.

A couple minutes passed and the pirate's walking became staggered and when he finally stumbled, the masked woman pounced on him.

The sudden weight and unfocused mind caused the man to fall on the ground. When he looked up at Felicia, the sunlight shone on her mask; highlighting and enhancing every detail. Unlike the other normal cat masks, Felicia's mask was a bit different. It covered her whole face and though it had the regular shape of a cat face, it had weirdly shaped edges. The edges, in a way, resembled the same ones you would see on a bird mask. The rest of the mask was normal, except for the fact it was missing whiskers. Though the cat mask would have seem normal, the edges gave it a weird feeling. It was a quite strange cat mask.

The feeling of fear crept on the man as the strangeness of the mask added with the wearer's intimidating and un-human like eyes stared at him. And when the man suddenly came out of his drunken stupor and recognized the mask, it was too late; Felicia knocked out the pirate with a quick blow to his head before he even had the chance to struggle.

As Felicia tied up the unconscious pirate she came to the conclusion that the man she had just captured was both arrogant and just plain stupid. There was no way this man was fearless. In fact, he was an idiot. What kind of man got drunk in the afternoon? An idiot. And what kind of man was he? A pirate. So in conclusion, the man was an idiotic pirate.

The amber eyed woman dusted the dirt off her hands while she looked up at the sky. Taking note of the position of the sun, she knew there were only a couple more hours before nightfall, so she quickly slung the man over her shoulder and headed for the marine base.

For a regular woman, capturing a pirate was no easy feat but the way she spent her childhood made her agile; plus she had become a pirate hunter a year ago, giving her plenty of time to perfect the task of capturing pirates. And, the pirate was drunk. Drunk equaled sluggish movements and slower thoughts- not a good condition for fighting.

Felicia chose to walk through the streets that most of the townspeople didn't use or avoided since the pirate hunter didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention to herself. She wanted to lay low, be a shadow, because she knew the trouble attention caused. She knew it very well.

...

Twenty minutes later, Felicia arrived at the town's Marine Base.

"Welcome! How may I help you?" a woman, the secretary (a new one Felicia noted), asked with a cheery tone.

Felicia, remembering her manners, dipped her head in greeting.

_Rule #1: When someone greets you, greet them back._

"Collecting a bounty for a captured pirate," Felicia stated politely, shifting a little so the woman could get a clearer look at the captured pirate.

She shifted some more when she realized the woman was staring at her with wide eyes.

Not being able to stand the pressure of a gaze, Felicia cleared her throat, catching the woman's attention. Yes, the woman was quite new.

"Ahh, I'm sorry," the secretary apologized, "right this way."

Felicia nodded and followed the woman. The marine's base design was like every other marine base, white and blue, except for the occasional island things in the building.

The pirate hunter was led to a room where there was bounty posters posted all over the walls; not one single white space was seen. A table with chairs was set in the middle of the room and a single desk was placed in the far left corner near a door. Felicia had become quite familiar with this place over the past month due to the fact that she had been doing the same thing earlier on and had to come here to drop off the captured pirates and collect the bounties.

"Mr. Lockwood will be arriving shortly," the secretary said.

Felicia nodded, signaling that she heard and the secretary left.

Felicia sighed with relief when the woman was gone and dropped the pirate, her catch, on the floor. She couldn't stand being near people, especially people who kept staring at her. She hated being stared at. Remembering the staring incident earlier, she shivered.

A couple minutes later, Felicia heard footsteps approaching and the door opened; a man, Mr. Lockwood, entered.

"Well! If it isn't our masked hunter, Cat! Back already! And with a new catch! Geez, you're something." he exclaimed as he sat at the desk.

"Thank you." Her voice was quiet yet firm. It also had a formal feeling and polite edge to it, like this was how she grew up.

_Rule #2: When someone compliments you, say thank you._

Mr. Lockwood nodded. "So who's the pirate this time?"

"Drunkard Noah: 5,000,000 beli bounty," she stated while grabbing the pirate's bounty poster from her bag.

"Was he drunk, just like his nickname?" the marine joked.

Felicia wasn't really fond of marines. She had a dislike for them, a huge one but she still had her manners.

"Yes, he was," Felicia said flatly.

The marine's face dropped in disappointment but it quickly disappeared.

"That's a pretty low bounty, lower than the one you usually go for, and quite easy," he commented and left the room with the captured pirate.

The woman shrugged in response and looked around the room. Seeing the many posters reminded her that she needed to restock her own stash of bounty posters.

Moments later, the marine was back with the money.

"Here you go. Exactly 5,000,000 beli for the captured and alive pirate," he said and handed her the money.

"Can I have some more bounty posters?" she asked politely.

"Sure!" he exclaimed. The marine took out a small stack of bounty posters from the desk of his drawer.

"In here are bounties ranging from your usual amount 60,000,000 and above. I also included some really big ones since you seem like the kind to be able to handle it," he explained and set the stack in front of her.

"Big bounties?" she questioned through her mask.

"Yup. _Big_ ones."

"How big?"

"Past 100,000,000 beli."

Felicia thought about what he said. Pirates with bounties past 100 million beli tended to be harder to catch, but they also tended to be very arrogant which most of the time, proved to be their downfall.

"What pirates?"

"Some are pirates from the New World, others are rookies, but the ones most people know are the Whitebeard pirates."

"Whitebeard pirates?" Felicia had heard of the name before, but she didn't know much about them.

"Yes! The Whitebeard pirates! They are currently one of the strongest crews out there! Their captain is one of the four Yonkos of the New World and he was even tied with Gold Roger when they fought. Plus their commanders are insanely strong," he exclaimed with a shudder, "but they're also _insanely_ arrogant and cocky."

Felicia didn't have much interest at first when she heard about the Whitebeard pirates, but when she heard the last part, she couldn't help but think what it would feel like to crush their arrogance and pride.

"I see," she said and the room lapsed into silence.

The man cleared his throat.

"Well!" he exclaimed, trying to clear the awkward silence, "it's been very nice having you hunt down the pirates in town for the past month. How about you join the marines?"

Felicia's mouth opened to say 'thank you' for the compliment but when she heard the last part she narrowed her eyes.

Become a marine? She would never! She wouldn't become like them. She was enraged at the thought.

"Never," the masked woman hissed angrily.

The man shrank back at the sudden harsh tone of her voice.

Still mad at the marine, she brushed past him; forgetting her manners in the process.

* * *

Felicia subconsciously heard a skitter near her, and turned her head towards the sound in response. She slowly opened her eyes, having just woken up, her eyesight was still blurry, but she could make out a small round shape with two yellowish dots in the middle. The drowsy woman wondered what in the world was the thing in front of her. When Felicia's vision finally cleared, she shrieked and scrambled away when she realized that the thing in front of her was a rat, a huge one.

The rat scurried away in fright, but Felicia was even more frightened than the rat. She took a huge breath and let it out, trying to slow her frantic heartbeat. When her heartbeat finally slowed down she looked up at the sky and noticed she had woken up just when it hit night, like an internal clock.

After Felicia had left the scene earlier, she had napped for the rest of the daylight hours in a open yet secluded dark alleyway.

She had already taken off her mask and changed out of her all black outfit; she didn't want people knowing who Cat was.

Sighing, the woman got up and dusted herself off.

Having reached night, the town had quieted down and people were all rushing home.

Knowing that at night there were no places except for a couple of bars and inns that were open; she decided to head for the bars, hoping to get some info about any treasures or jewels.

Stepping out of the dark open alley, the moonlight shone on the quiet town as Felicia headed for the bars, beginning another long night.

* * *

**Beta'd By: Everlude**


	2. Chapter 2: The Tavern Tabby

Thank you to:** Mikila94, Alies16 Luhuna **for reviewing.**  
**

****** Alies16**: She's a pirate hunter. :)

Another thank you would be to **Everlude**! She's a fantastic beta! Ahh! She's amazing! Without her, this chapter would be choppy and not as good. Thank you! :)

Also, if anyone can find the foreshadowing in this chapter, I'll give you a sneak peak for the next chapter. Hehe.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own One Piece! I only own my beloved character and plot. :P

* * *

The Cat's Predicaments

**Chapter 2**: The Tavern Tabby

Bars, at night, were lighting was dim but bright enough where you could see the people, it would have been gloomy if it wasn't for the loud sound of drunk men laughing and singing.

When Felicia had entered, she narrowly dodged a drunk man who was stumbling around looking for the door way. The woman mentally shook her head at the drunken man and passed by him. Though she was polite and mannered, she wasn't going to help the man who caused his own current state of being tipsy. Felicia was sure the man could manage himself. With that thought, she brushed past him and headed for the bar. In the corner of her eye, she could see that a group of men that were sitting at the tables were leering at her and in fact, she could even feel it.

The leering triggered an old feeling inside of her but she pushed it back furiously; rather choosing the new feeling- the feeling of fury and anger. But Felicia knew better. If she caused a brawl, there would be no info about any jewels or islands containing treasure- the men in the bar would be reluctant to share info with someone who had caused a fight and ruined the good mood.

The woman sighed and decided to go with the logic part; maybe she'd get the leering men afterwards.

When she reached the bar, she chose to sit in the far left corner. It was dark enough to hide most of her because the lighting had gone out there and remained unfixed (she had her suspicions that the bar owner was too lazy to fix it) yet open enough for her to hear the conversations of the men who sat at the bar.

"Drink?" the bartender asked.

"Beer," she replied.

_Rule #3: When someone asks you a question, reply back. It's rude if you don't._

"What kind?"

"The lightest you have."

The bartender looked at her peculiarly, but didn't say anything.

As the bartender left to get her drink, she slowly focused on the sound around her, hoping to hear something interesting.

"This beer tastes mighty fine!" a drunk man exclaimed at his table.

"It does indeed!" his companion said, laughing.

Felicia slowly moved her head, directing her ear towards some other conversations, but they were all nothing interesting.

"Your beer," the bartender announced while he handed her the cup filled with liquid that's color was close to gold .

"Thanks," she replied and took it from his outstretched hand.

The man leaned against the bar and looked at her. "So what's a lady like you doing here?" he questioned.

"Drinking," she said, cutting of any chances for more questions and began to drink.

The bartender's eyebrow twitched, showing his annoyance but he nodded, having received the sign.

The rest of night continued on silently with nothing interesting that had come up.

Felicia would have felt a bit down but she knew that information didn't always come easily.

The bar closed at three in the morning and the woman decided that she would walk around until morning and the sun was up and shining, but instead, she was cornered by the men that were leering at her earlier.

"Hey, woman! Where you going?" a guy asked. Felicia automatically knew that the guy was the leader, judging from the fact that men were following behind him.

"Away from you," she stated calmly while restlessly moving her gloved fingers. She wasn't afraid. Not anymore, she told herself.

The group of men laughed as if it was a funny joke. "How about you come and join us for fun?" another man asked maliciously while his companions formed a tight circle around her. You got this, Felicia assured herself. She felt the old creeping feeling of fear and furiously pushed it away. Instead, she brought up the raging feeling of anger inside her, anger about the group's intentions.

"No thanks," she rejected calmly.

"Well that's too bad," the leader of the group snarled and they attacked her.

...

"Back again?" the bartender said, amused.

"I was attracted to your beer," Felicia said, not knowing what else to say.

The bartender chuckled. "Same thing as yesterday?"

She nodded.

Felicia was back at the bar for a second time, doing the same thing as last night, looking for info; she didn't give up easily.

"Did you hear?" the bartender asked when he handed her the beer.

"About what?" Felicia questioned as she nodded her thanks.

"They found a group of men in an alley," he said as he began to clean the glass cups.

"So?"

"They were found dead with their bodies bloody and bruised; some of the bones in their body were crushed as well," the man explained and continued, "some people say they've been mauled by a wild animal."

"Mauled?" Felicia said while her eyebrow lifted questionably.

"Yeah, there were long bloody claw marks that slit open their skin and they were deep, to the point where you could see the bone. They were found all over their bodies."

"Hmm. Any survivors?"

"None. Whatever attacked them made sure that they were all dead," the bartender stated.

"I see."

"It's kind of funny though."

"Why?" Felicia asked, her eyes holding a bit of curiosity at the comment.

"There's barely any wild animals here on this island, especially ones that are big enough to maul a group of men," the bartender explained.

"Ah, I see," Felicia said and the bartender left to take care of another customer.

The woman wasn't expecting that the group of men would be found so soon, let alone that the news about them would travel so fast, but then again, Sayonara Island was a small island.

Felicia wondered if she should leave the island soon before any of the rumors led to her, but she still hadn't gotten any of the info that she wanted.

She decided -info first and leave later. Felicia couldn't miss any chances that might lead to treasure.

"Bwhaha, finally a place where we can get beer!" a man exclaimed loudly while he entered the building, throwing open the bar doors.

"Hey, don't forget about the treasures!" his companion muttered quietly, low enough and only meant for the man to hear, but Felicia caught it.

Intrigued by the conversation, Felicia kept her focus on them while she silently drank her beer.

"Relax! Kyrano island isn't going anywhere besides, I doubt anyone there knows about the treasures," the broad man assured his companion. "Plus, the island isn't that far," he added.

Bingo, the black haired woman thought. Now all she had to do was get her hands on the map.

As the two men drank their rum, letting their guards down in the process, Felicia began surveying them. The man that had entered first- the loud one, was broad while his companion was lean, but both were muscled, Felicia observed.

The woman hadn't decided how to get the map, there was just too many options.

Option 1: Knock them out and steal the map

Option 2: Steal the map without them knowing

Option 3: Steal the map, memorize it, and put it back, all without them knowing.

Option 4: Knock them out, steal and memorize the map, and put it back.

Yes, there were just too many options. Option one and two would eliminate the competition of who could get the treasure first. Felicia liked competition, but she was pretty sure that the men who were holding the map weren't the only ones that knew about the treasure. Then again, there was a slight possibility.

Option three and four seemed like a pain to go through and honestly, she was feeling lazy at the moment. Felicia decided that she would go with option two. Stealing was one of her specialties. Knocking them out would have made a scene.

For the next few hours, the woman sat and observed the two men while they drank their hearts out. She had found out by observing, that they too were like her-treasure hunters, and they had heard the rumors of treasure; and with luck, had recently found the map. The men were also heavy drinkers and had no problems with getting wasted and drunk- a foolish mistake, Felicia thought. The two men were carrying a map that lead to treasure yet here they were, drunk like there was no tomorrow and didn't even consider the thought that their map could be stolen.

Lucky for her, Felicia wasn't going to have to do much due to the fact that both men had wandered outside and were slumped against the wall, knocked out from the heavy beer. Felicia silently approached the drunks and examined them. They were definitely knocked out and they reeked of beer. She didn't want her hands reeking of beer so a tail appeared behind her. The woman sighed and crouched down, keeping an eye on the drunkards for any movement while her tail dug around their bag, and searched for the map. When she saw a paper that resembled a map, she fished it out with her tail and opened it. Kyrano Island was marked in bold on top and the large red X was shown on the map, which clearly indicated that the treasure was hidden there.

Mission accomplished, she thought.

...

During afternoons, Felicia would have been sleeping and not out in the town shopping, but since the town shops closed at the usual time she woke up and opened when she went to sleep, the woman had no choice but to take some hours out of her sleeping schedule. Every person needed supplies if they were to travel; Felicia was no exception.

The town square was quite loud and busy in the afternoon.

"Fresh fish! Just caught this morning!" a fishermen yelled at his stall.

"Get your fruits and vegetables!" another stall owner yelled.

Felicia mentally went through a list in her head of what she needed. Like the man had said earlier, Kyrano island wasn't far and was actually only a two day trip. She could restock at Kyrano, but Sayonara Island's stocks seemed nice to her.

She spent the next couple hours walking around the town square and shopping for supplies.

The black haired woman stopped by a jewelry stall; the pretty and shiny products had caught her eye.

"That's a pretty earring you have, though unusual since I've never seen that type before," the lady of the jewelry stall remarked.

Felicia subconsciously lifted her hand and touched her earring. Unlike the earrings that usually went through the ears, her earring didn't require a hole. The earring was actually an ear cuff. The small silver plated ear cuff had an elegant design and a single beautiful feather was attached to it.

"I have a taste for unusual things," Felicia said while she remembered her cat mask.

Indeed she had taste for unusual things since she was unusual herself.

The woman bid the stall owner goodbye (manners and all) and left for her boat; she had already got all the supplies she needed.

Felicia began to unload all the stuff on her small boat.

Her small boat contained a small deck and mast with stairs leading to the bottom of the boat which contained two rooms; kitchen and a room turned storage room with a bed that she rarely used.

The woman preferred to sleep out in the open except for the times when the weather made it impossible to sleep out.

Today's weather was perfect to sleep in due to the fact that the temperature was cool and the sun was high. Perfect time to sleep and sunbathe, Felicia thought and unraveled the sail. Catching the current wind, the ship slowly began to move.

Though the ship didn't contain a crow's nest that she would usually sleep in, the woman chose the yard which was the long horizontal wood holding the sail.

Felicia settled herself on the wood and lounged on it like a cat. She felt the small, cool wind blowing and the sun shining down on her. Full of content, the cat-like woman sighed and closed her eyes. She wondered if there would be any trouble at the next island before she succumbed to the call of sleep.

* * *

**Beta'd By: Everlude**


	3. Chapter 3: The Foolish Feline

Man, you had no idea how frustrated I was when I was writing this chapter. Seriously, I was like AHH! WHAT THE HECK! Yeah, I was really frustrated. XD

**Note: **For those of you that haven't noticed already, I tend to update every ten days, (eleven for the different time zones people) twelve to fourteen if I'm really really really frustrated or lazy. XP I tried aiming for a week but that's never going to happen.

**Thank you to the following people for reviewing: **Juliedoo, Origami44, Ashlyn-i, Trich, and cOOkieGirl1718.  
You get cookies and love from me. X)

**Note #2: **Please leave a comment! (I'll cry if you don't. Xl) The crying thing was a joke, lol. But anyway, again, please review. I would like to feel some love. XD

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! I only own my beloved character and plot. :P**

* * *

The Cat's Predicaments

**Chapter 3**: The Foolish Feline

Kyrano Island was in sight.

Felicia could see the island's dark shape. A couple more hours and she would arrive at treasure island. She had dubbed Kyrano island treasure island due to the fact that it contained treasures. It was a 'tradition' that she always did whenever she went treasure hunting.

Thinking about treasures made her excited. The woman had a huge love for them. People called it greed but she wasn't willing to admit to it. She just really loved treasures.

It was midnight when Felicia finally arrived and docked at the island. Because of the fact that she was on a new island, she decided to explore.

From the info she got by reading the map that she had stolen, Kyrano island was a doughnut shaped island; it resembled a doughnut so much that it even had the hole in the middle. The island contained two towns: Sodom, which was on the left side and Gomorrah, which was on the right. The hole in the middle of the island was a small lake and was a tourist attraction. The docks (the closest location that Felicia was near from any others) were located on the bottom half of the island while the upper half contained a huge forest. The rest of the island was covered in lush green grass with few forests here and there, and the edges of the island were sandy beaches.

The red X mark (the sign for the treasure) was planted in the middle of a huge forest that she had noticed earlier and was labeled as 'The Cushite Forest' on the map. It stretched from Sodom to Gomorrah, covering more area than any other forests and in the smack middle of the forest was a small clearing just like the hole in the island.

The woman, who decided to explore the towns for any info or news, stuffed the map back in her bag and began her walk to the first town, Sodom.

...

Usually there would be some activity in a town during night whether it was bars or late night shops but Sodom wasn't like that. Sodom was different. Every shop was closed, even the bars. There were no lights, causing the town to be covered in darkness. The streets were empty and there was not a single sound.

If it wasn't for the fact that she could hear the faint heartbeats from the nearby houses, Felicia would've thought it was a deserted town.

Seeing that there was nothing much to do and no person to ask questions, Felicia hurriedly got out of the quiet town and headed for Gomorrah.

Gomorrah was the opposite of Sodom at night. Gomorrah's streets were filled with bright lights. There were stalls on the side of the streets, selling all kinds of things. The streets were full of people and filled with the noise of chatter and occasional laughter. It was loud and lively.

"Umm, excuse me. Do you know how long it takes for the log post to set?" she asked a nearby stall owner.

"Traveler?" he questioned while examining her.

Felicia nodded.

"The log post takes two days to set," the man said.

"Thanks. Also, I was wondering about the town Sodom, how come-"

"How come it's so quiet?" the stall owner said, cutting her off.

The woman shuffled, a bit annoyed at being cut off but nodded.

"Sodom is a day town," he stated while he adjust the display items on his stall.

Felicia looked at him questioningly.

"Travelers," he muttered in annoyance but continued, "Sodom is only active during the day and when it hits night, they're out, done. They won't open, at all, and no one is awake. Gomorrah is the opposite; it's a night town. We're active during the night, and when it hits day, we're also out. Like Sodom, we don't open once we're out."

"Oh," she said.

The stall owner rolled his eyes. "There, I answered all your questions. Now go away. I have customers to tend to," the man said, shooing Felicia away before she could ask another question.

The woman's annoyance grew but she didn't say anything and instead looked for someone else to ask.

While she strolled along the streets, she noticed that male, female, adult, young, all kinds of people were awake in this town. Felicia felt like she fit in with the town a bit because like her, they all thrived during the night.

After her conversation with the stall owner, Felicia felt a bit curious about Sodom so she decided, painstakingly, that she would sacrifice her hours of sleep to explore Sodom. Hopefully, it would be worth it. Plus, she still had questions that no one had answered yet.

...

Felicia's stomach growled while she walked the streets of Sodom. She hadn't eaten anything the previous night and she was too busy exploring the day town to stop for a bite. Sodom was different from Gomorrah. Instead of modern and casual like the night town, everything was refined and elegant.

The woman had come to the conclusions for the two towns; Sodom was the one with all the fancy shops, expensive restaurants, elegant bars while Gomorrah was the one with all the rickety stands and stalls, casual places to eat, and bars that tended to be filled with fighting.

She had wandered around the town for the entire morning after her trip to Gomorrah and felt the sun's burning heat though she didn't mind at all, in fact, she enjoyed it. Summer, the island's season, was her favorite though she mentally made a note to change clothes when she got back to her boat. Her dark black jacket, slightly thick pants, and winter gloves with fur lining were starting to make her sweat.

Felicia hated to admit it, but she regretted choosing to explore Sodom. She could've been off somewhere sleeping right now.

Her stomach rumbled again, breaking her train of thoughts.

She sighed and obliged to her stomach's wishes, heading to a small restaurant nearby.

"Welcome!" a high pitched voice shouted, causing her to flinch uncomfortably.

"Party of one?" the host asked.

Felicia nodded.

"Right this way."

The black haired woman was led to a small two person table.

"Your server will be right with you," the host said and left.

The woman quickly scanned the menu and picked some pasta with a name that she couldn't remember.

While waiting for the waiter, she looked around.

The inside of the restaurant was painted cream white and chandeliers that shined dimly were hung on the ceilings. The chairs and tables were the same as the one she sat at, all black except for the white clothing covering the table's surface.

All in all, the restaurant gave off the same feeling as the town did.

In the corner of her eye, she could see a man approaching.

"Are you ready to order?" the waiter asked.

"Yes, could I get the uh, pasta that has the white sauce with the, uh, melted cheese?"

"The Sodom's signature pasta?" he suggested.

"Yes!"

"It'll be coming right up," he stated and collected her menu. Seeing that he began to leave, she spoke.

"Uh," she said quickly causing him to stop and look at her.

"I was wondering, do pirates tend to visit this island often?"

"Pirates? Pirates never dock at this island," he answered.

Satisfied, Felicia said her thanks and the waiter left.

Moments later and having been served her food, she thought about what she was going to do.

Instead of grabbing the treasure now, Felicia could grab it later. Knowing that pirates haven't appeared on Kyrano Island for a while made her relax a little, but the thing that made her the most relaxed was the summer heat. She could spend her time on the island relaxing and basking in the heat.

Though somewhere in the back of her mind, Felicia knew that it should be treasure first and relaxing second, but she didn't want to waste a single moment on this island. If there was one thing that Felicia loved more than treasures and jewels, it was summer.

...

Night had hit and Felicia had changed into a black button up shirt with sleeves that reached to her elbows , white cotton pants, and thin black leather gloves.

With her eyes closed and her long black hair spread out, she had simply lain there on the soft sandy beach near her boat. She was basking in the heat and quietly listening to the sound of lapping waves.

She knew that she would have to get the sand out of her hair later, but at the moment she didn't care.

Peaceful moments without any nightmares rarely came for her and she was going take advantage of this rare moment.

So Felicia lay there all night, not moving one bit until she fell asleep when morning came.

...

Felicia was woken up by a huge explosion somewhere near her. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and got up. She could see smoke rising in the air.

A bit ticked at having her sleep be disturbed, the amber eyed woman headed towards the direction of the smoke, intending to yell at whoever caused the explosion.

Felicia made sure to keep a safe distance away from the small waves of water washing up the beach, she didn't want to be caught in them, considering the fact that she would become an anchor once she was dragged into the ocean.

While Felicia walked along the beach and got closer to the docks, she could see that the smoke was coming from one peculiar ship.

The woman stopped and gazed at the ship from a distance. The ship that harbored the smoke and probably the culprit of the explosion as well was probably the biggest out of all the others at the dock. It towered over the normal ships and it made her think that her small boat was pathetic in comparison to the huge ship.

What also stood out about this ship was the fact that the other ships were nowhere near the huge ship, as if they were avoiding it.

Felicia had a nagging suspicion about the huge ship, a suspicion that included pirates owning the ship. But she didn't know any pirate crews that were big enough to fit the ship, at least none that stuck in her mind.

Wary, Felicia decided to drop the issue and instead got ready to travel to the Cushite Forest; knowing that once woken up, she couldn't go back to sleep.

...

Felicia had finally arrived at the Cushite Forest after the hours of hiking from the bottom part of the island to the upper part. She unconsciously brushed back a strand of hair that had entangled itself on her ear cuff while she made sure that her mask was on securely. Whether it was pirate hunting or treasure hunting, she preferred to be masked. The fewer people who knew her identity, the easier it was to stay out of trouble; her alter ego tended to make a lot more enemies than she usually would.

Dressed in a regular all black outfit that she usually wore as 'Cat' and with the mask on tightly, she was ready to head into the forest. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt like she was missing something but couldn't remember what.

Felicia, knowing that every step brought her closer to the treasure, began to pick up her pace. Her heart started beating with the familiar excitement of treasure hunting and her fast pace of walking had now turned into a run with silent footsteps. As she drew nearer and nearer, her heart started to pound even faster. And when she dashed out into the open area of where the treasure was...Felicia was crushed by the sight in front her.

"Well, what do we have here?" an amused voice said.

There in the small clearing, a blond haired man stood a couple meters away from her with a group of pirates (his crew mates, she assumed). His half lidded eyes gave him the look that he was half asleep, and his face was expressionless except for the slightly amused grin stretched across his face and there was a large blue tattoo on his chest of a cross and a crescent moon mustache attached to it.

She recognized the man's face, she had seen it on her stack of bounty posters, he was Marco the Phoenix, First Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.

And he and his crew mates were all surrounding an open chest, the treasure chest.

And then the reality hit her, hard, crushing her even more. Pirates had gotten to the treasure first, they had gotten there before her.

And the waiter said that pirates never docked at Kyrano Island.

* * *

**Beta'd By: (The Awesome) Everlude  
(So awesome that this space is reserved for only her!)**


	4. Chapter 4: The Burglar Cat

Yes, I know, I know. This chapter is late. Originally this was suppose to be out on the 10th. If that didn't work, then the 14th.  
Due to the mass struggle I had with this chapter, including writer's block, laziness, busyness, and taking a lovely break...this chapter was delayed. You're probably going to kill me but I had this finished and ready to go yesterday(some of you would already know this due to reading my profile XDD). But I wanted to post it on the 20th, so yeah. XD

_Thank you to the following people for reviewing:  
_**GennaSarah**,** Mikila94**, **soul12**, **Touch chick**, ,**IseulTaps** **Origami44**, **Shiningheart of ThunderClan**, and **Emz**.  
Thank you for all the lovely reviews. Hugs and cookies for you. XDD

_Note #1: _I have received a lot of reviews, alerts, and favorites from you guys. Thank you so much! It means a lot!

_Note #2:_** There will be a short excerpt of Chapter 5 on the bottom with a warning attached to it. Nothing major of course, nothing major. **

_Note #3:_** I tend to update my profile a lot so if you ever wonder about the progress of TCP, you know where to look. **X)** If I haven't updated in 7-8 days then there's a problem, unless I left a warning about it. **XDDD

_Quick Question:_ Anyone willing to guess what type and kind of devil fruit she has? One part is obvious but the question is what _kind_? It's not going to be an easy guess. MUAHAHAHA!

Oh and remember to review. **Love**, people, love. I _need_ some love. X)**  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! I only own my beloved character and plot. :P**

* * *

The Cat's Predicaments

**Chapter 4**: The Burglar Cat

"Pirates," Felicia sneered distastefully, the name rolling off of her tongue while she eyed the small group of men in front of her. It still sounded the same to her, foul, dirty, and repulsive. No matter how many pirates she met, they were always the same to her; clearly some things never changed.

Though she grudgingly hated to admit it, Felicia was disappointed in herself, deeply disappointed. If the treasure had been taken, or in this case, discovered before her, by normal men, thieves, or bandits, then she wouldn't have really cared, but these men were pirates. Out of the species called men, they were the very type that she didn't like, no, that she hated. Thankfully, the woman had been able to compose herself before she spoke.

The woman had obviously gotten carried away by the island's weather, and had evidently pushed aside her main goals, becoming lazy. Felicia had clearly made a wrong (and embarrassing) decision then and now she was stuck with a troubling situation that she honestly didn't want to deal with.

"We are indeed," Marco drawled while he examined her with an amusing look. The woman couldn't help but wonder if the amused look was from her sudden appearance or the disappointed slump her shoulders did when she had spotted them earlier. "And what would you be? A stray?"

Though the man couldn't see, due to the fact she was masked, the woman narrowed her eyes. "Cat, I'm a cat."

The man's grin grew even wider, clearly amused at her answer, but his crew mates were thinking differently. "What a weirdo," a young one muttered.

"A stray cat? How interesting," he mocked, ignoring his crew mate's comment.

She growled in response, annoyed with the fact that the man had twisted her words and was mocking her with it.

The man simply chuckled, not even showing a sign of fear at her growl. "And what would a cat want?"

Felicia looked at him straight in the eye and crossed her arms. "Your treasure," she stated coolly.

Marco shifted into a more relaxing standing posture. "And what makes you expect us to hand it over?" he asked, his tone the same as before, relaxed and calm. Clearly, he didn't think of her statement as a threat.

"Expect?" she scoffed. "You're pirates. I don't expect you to hand it over."

"So-"

"So I'll fight you for it," she challenged, cutting him off. Realizing that she had gotten too caught up with the conversation and interrupted him, she mentally winced and scolded herself for breaking one of her rules. Pirate or not, rules were rules.

Rule #4: When someone is talking, don't interrupt or cut them off. It's rude if you do.

"Fight me? You want to fight me?" Marco questioned incredulously.

"Exactly! I'll fight you for the treasure."

"If I decline?" he questioned.

"You wouldn't."

The man let out a roar of laughter that rung throughout the small clearing. "Quite confident, aren't you?"

Felicia merely shrugged in response.

"Why wouldn't I?" he asked with a hint of curiosity.

"You don't seem like the type to decline a good fight," she explained firmly. Felicia had immediately stereotyped Marco as the type of pirate who enjoyed fighting when she first saw him, but then again, this immediate stereotype came from the fact that ninety-nine percent of the pirates she came across or hunted enjoyed fighting.

Though the woman usually resorted to stealing, Felicia wasn't a fool. She knew that Marco wouldn't be a person that she could just steal from; he was different from the other men she dealt with. There was a reason why he had such a large bounty. Obviously, the last option was to fight. Running and giving up wasn't an option for her, especially with men like him, and when treasures were at stake.

"Very well, I accept your challenge," he said.

Having heard the exchange, his crew mates began to back up to provide space for the fight, during the process she saw that some men (the younger ones) had excited looks on their face while other merely muttered and shook their head.

...

Now the only people in the small clearing were Marco and her.

The woman restlessly moved her gloved fingers; the usual movement that she did whenever a fight was coming up.

The amused grin on Marco's face was replaced with a closed lip smile that she had seen earlier on his bounty poster. Adding the expressionless look on his face with the half lidded eyes and the sheer power that he had around him, Felicia felt...intimidated and a bit disturbed from the new look on his face. It gave off a creepy feeling. Not that she would ever tell or admit, of course.

Ready to begin the battle, Felicia chose to go first.

The woman ran towards him and threw a punch at Marco's face. Dodging the attack, the man retaliated with a hard kick to her stomach, causing her to fly back.

Felicia's back slammed against a tree and she fell to the ground. Quickly recovering from the blow that had just hit her, the woman shifted into a crouching position similar to a cat's. A grin slid across her masked face as the adrenaline of fighting began to rush through her body. She knew that such a simple attack would fail, but it had serve its original purpose: letting Felicia see how fast and strong the infamous Phoenix was. The black haired woman wasn't stupid to think that this was all he had; she could tell that Marco was holding back.

Felicia dashed forward again and was met with a punch that she quickly dodged by ducking. Using the advantage of being so low, she kicked out her leg in a sweeping motion, intending to sweep the man off his feet and cause him to fall but the pirate quickly jumped back. She mentally patted herself on the back at having made the man move from his spot. It had secretly irked her when he didn't move. Instantly getting up, Felicia aimed a kick to his face which the man caught.

"Not bad. Since you don't seem to be much of a newbie, I'll take it to the next notch," Marco remarked and blue flames began to appear on his arms and legs causing Felicia to do a double take.

Blue. Blue flames. The woman was...baffled. Felicia had never in her life seen flames in the color of blue. She thought that flames only came in one color (or at least three to specific) but apparently she was proven wrong.

The flames began to trail up his arms and onto the very hand that held her leg. She was beginning to feel the intense heat emitted from it and the familiar sensation of getting burned. The woman struggled to get out her leg out of his hand, but the man only tightened his grip in response, causing her to let out an inhuman hiss in frustration. She wasn't going to punch him because he would catch it, and with the fact that his hands were on fire, she didn't want to get stuck and be burned.

If the man was going to use a part of his devil fruit, so would she.

Quick as a cat, Felicia lashed out her tail, curled it around his wrist and yanked hard on it, wrenching the man's hand away. Grasping the opportunity of freedom, the woman jumped back a couple feet away from the pirate, her tail lashing out from side to side in anger. A second later, Marco appeared in front of her. Not missing a beat, Felicia narrowly dodged the flaming fist, feeling the flickers of heat that could've burned her and sent a quick, hard jab to his stomach to which he easily evaded. The woman swung her tail against Marco's foot causing him to stumble when he took a step back. Spotting the small opening, Felicia directed a kick to his stomach to which he barely avoided. The woman continued to rain attacks on him to which in return, he continued to dodge (she was quite frustrated about this but none the less didn't give up and continued).

"You know, I can't help but wonder what's behind the mask," Marco casually thought out loud while continually evading her attacks. Felicia swore that she had seen a mischievous glint in his eyes though it disappeared quickly, none the less it still made her wary. Despite the fact that she only saw it for a second, her eyes had never failed her.

Backed up by the momentum from the continuous attacks, Felicia directed a punch towards his face, wanting to crush the look that disturbed her so much.

The man caught her hand and the woman prepared herself for his attack, but instead of a punch, his hand simply reached past her. The words Marco had said flashed through her mind, making her realize what he was doing. The woman felt a brush against her earring, making her flinch at such close contact. Panic began to consume her, causing her to let out a loud hiss and throw another punch that he also caught. Marco simply chuckled in mock amusement, adding fire to her panic and anger.

"Marco! The marines are here!" one of his crew mates shouted, making Marco momentarily forget about her and direct his attention towards his crew mate who had shouted the warning, a mistake that he shouldn't have done.

No longer holding back, Felicia drew back her foot and using the increased strength she was gifted with from the devil fruit she ate, she sent a brutally hard kick to his stomach while Marco was distracted and off guard, causing him to fly back.

Marines began to invade the small clearing and surrounded the pirates from all sides. Seeing the current situation, Felicia quickly decided that the fight was over and that she was going to get the hell out of here. She'd already dealt with pirates today, she didn't want to deal with marines as well.

"Marines," Marco drawled while he casually got up from the ground and played off her attack as if it was nothing.

As much as Felicia hated him, she had to hand it to him, he was pretty good at hiding the fact that it actually hurt. She saw a bruise begin to form but suddenly, the area she had attacked was covered in blue flames and when the fire was gone, it took the bruise with it. The woman mentally took note that his devil fruit seemed to have healing powers which would explain one of the two reasons of his fast recovery. The second reason was high pain tolerance, she assumed.

"Attack the pirates!" the Marine Commander yelled, signaling the beginning of an all-out battle between the two forces.

Taking advantage of the fact that she was seemingly forgotten, Felicia stealthy stalked over to the open treasure chest while dodging the many men on the battlefield. Fortunately for her, even though the chest was open, it wasn't empty. In fact, it looked untouched.

She had probably (and unintentionally) distracted the pirates from taking the treasure with her sudden entrance.

The woman began to hurriedly grab handfuls of the valuables and stuffed them in a bag that she usually used for this occasion. Once the bag was filled to the brim, Felicia drew the strings and secured it with a knot. Even though her bag was full, there were still some leftovers and Felicia was tempted to grab the rest. Doing a quick eye-scan of the clearing and making sure that no one was watching, the hunter, unashamedly, scooped up the remainder of gold and shoved it in her side pocket. Satisfied, she hoisted the bag over her shoulder and began her escape out of the battlefield.

...

Felicia ran through the deserted streets of Gomorrah while carrying her load of goodies. The night town looked serene and peaceful. Obviously, the marines and pirates hadn't invaded the town with their troubling battles, yet.

The black haired hunter was currently running to her boat, hoping that it was safe from the pesky hands of men.

Initially, she was planning to go the next island that her log post was going to point at, but because of that fact that the woman had a few more hours until the thing set, hours that she would have to survive through without getting caught by the pirates and their disturbing First Commander or being seen by the pesky and annoying marines, she changed her plans. Plus, she didn't want to risk the chance of bumping into the Whitebeard pirates on the next island, especially with all the newly stolen treasure aboard.

Yeah, she was definitely changing her plans.

Felicia felt a bit of a relief when she spotted the familiar sight of sand and waves. The relief was quickly crushed when she reached the sandy edges. Her boat was nowhere to be found. She frantically searched for the wooden vessel. She was sure that the boat was around here, after all, she remembered docking it near...

The woman stopped and face-palmed herself in realization and stupidity. The hunter had docked her boat near Sodom not Gomorrah; she was on the wrong side. Felicia muttered and cursed, unknowingly breaking one of her many rules, while she sprinted on the sandy beach to the other side.

How could she forget? She usually never forgot about stuff like this.

The black haired woman caught sight of the docks and the urge to hurry and go back to the boat almost had her shift so she could even go faster, but she stopped herself, knowing that it would draw attention, fight or not.

As Felicia neared, she could see that the docks were filled with marines and pirates fighting. There were several marine ships out in the ocean, some that were on fire, others crushed into ruins. The one thing that the ships, marines and pirates, had in common were that they were all surrounding one single ship. The very same ship she had seen hours earlier, the ship that was flying a similar symbol to the tattoo on the man she had fought earlier, the ship that indeed, carried the pirates that she now knew were Whitebeard pirates.

Felicia avoided the mass crowd of men though she caught several glimpses of a funny hairdo here and there, but the woman did a double take when she caught a glimpse of a diamond, a bright gleaming diamond. The hunter was debating whether she should go and check it out but a small gut feeling told her not to. Felicia was honestly conflicted, the diamond she had caught sight of seemed so bright and shiny, but seeing all the pirates and marines fighting, including the risks that she would take, and adding the fact of what had happened earlier this morning (which was still quite fresh in her mind), Felicia went with her guts and continued her run.

Having finally reached her beloved vessel, the woman dropped the bag full of treasures down the hole that lead to the bottom of the boat and closed it. She would check out the goodies she had stolen once she had gotten away from the island.

Happy that the treasure was safely in the boat, Felicia got off and began to drag the wooden vessel to coverage that was a safe distance away from the docks.

She had some eternal log posts hidden somewhere in the boat (Felicia didn't actually hide them, she threw them around somewhere, being a bit too lazy to put them away properly) and knowing the fact that it would take some time to look for them, it was smart to have her boat hidden.

Felicia took a deep breath and began her search for the eternal log posts.

...

Sometime later, after frantically digging through her messenger bag and scurrying around the boat, the woman finally found her four eternal log posts, two of which she only needed at the moment. Felicia had found one in the sink (she had probably dropped it in there), one in the fridge (how that one ended up there still slightly puzzled her), one under the bed (she had probably kicked it under) and the other on a shelf in her storage room, the place where the eternal log posts were supposed to be.

Felicia placed the eternal log post she had found in the fridge on the shelf, switched the one she had found in the sink with the eternal log post on the shelf and pocketed it with the one she had found under the bed in her left side pocket (her right side being occupied by gold).

She then silently dragged her boat out onto the beach. Checking that the cost was clear, she pushed the boat into the ocean and hurriedly got on.

Felicia climbed up the mast and unfurled the sail. She stayed standing on the yard, gazing towards the direction of the docks.

The marines and pirates were still going at each other, but she could see that there was a lesser amount of marines and that they were starting to give up. The pirates were also beginning to withdraw and she had a suspicion that it had something to do with the fight she had earlier, though she wasn't quite sure. Whether her suspicion was true or not, she would never know since Felicia intended to avoid the Whitebeard pirates.

She wasn't afraid, she just tended to avoid pirates she stole from, masked or not.

Having already drifted quite a distance from the island, she saw the whole view and the docks were quite a sight, including the surrounding water.

Broken pieces of wood were floating all around, crumbling and burning ships sunk, bright consuming fires casted twisted shadows on the water, and the sky was a blood orange because of the setting sun.

The woman continued to gaze at the sight until Kyrano Island was no more than a speck.

Once the island was gone, Felicia took off her mask and sat down on the yard, suddenly feeling a wave of fatigue overcome her from the day's events.

* * *

**TCP - Chapter 5 Excerpt  
**

**Warning: This small part is unedited and is subjected to change in the next chapter. **

The black haired hunter fell on her back, a hand behind her head (the other still rummaging through the bag of treasures) and gazed at the night sky while letting a small smirk slide on her face. Though she did run into some trouble at Kyrano island (those pirates), it was worth it. The satisfying feeling of having stolen another batch of treasure rushed through her and the fact that she, 'Cat', had stole it from some infamous pirate (that she honestly didn't know much about besides the fact they were 'strong') made her treasure hunting even better.  
The woman could just imagine the ticked looks and angry remarks,especially one belonging to a certain commander, causing her to let out a small chuckle.  
Felicia took out a light weighted metal that she identified as silver and dangled it in front of her. It was a solid and simple bangle with not even one single design on it. Deciding to change it's look, the woman began to carve on its surface.

* * *

**Beta'd By:  
THE AMAZING...  
Everlude**


	5. Chapter 5: The Cat's Cache

Yay, Chapter 5 of TCP is here! Woot, Woot! And on time...I think. XD But anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter! XD It's a slow down from the last chapter, if that's what you call it.

_A Thank You to the Following People for Reviewing:_ **Thrill-Pair-All-The-Way, Origami44, RufinaAsano, xxOMGgalxx, Shiningheart of ThunderClan, cupiiicakes, **and guest reviewers**: Guest, Emz, Arianabannana, thesweetescape, zoooooey**

_Note #1: _Thank you for all the recent reviews, alerts, and follows! :)

_Note #2: _Aww, there was only one person who tried to guess what devil fruit Felicia had. :( More guesses? Haha.

_Note #3: _Credit for the title goes to** Everlude**. I originally had another title but I didn't like it so Everlude helped me out. XD

Remember to review people! Haha, I feel love when you do. XD But don't make demanding reviews, please, it's...yeah.

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! I only own my beloved character and plot. :P**

* * *

The Cat's Predicaments

**Chapter 5:** The Cat's Cache

The cold, smooth metal slid across Felicia's palm. She could smell its metallic scent and feel the weight of its worth in her palm. "Exchange," the woman muttered and casually tossed the small bar of gold in a pile on her right.

It had been a couple days since Felicia's trip to Kyrano Island. After the long and annoying search for her log posts, Felicia had come to a decision and she spent days cleaning and organizing the stuff in her boat. She had obviously learned her lesson: be clean and organized or you'll pay for it.

The woman was relieved when she had finished cleaning up and had time to rummage through the goods she had stolen.

Felicia reached for a diamond that was a size of her clenched fist. It had been polished to its finest and it gleamed brightly in the moonlight. Clearly the previous owner had taken good care of the valuables before it was buried.

The woman weighed the jewel in her palm and examined it for any flaws. Satisfied that she had seen none, Felicia tossed it into the keep pile on her left.

The black haired hunter let out a content sigh and fell on her back, a hand behind her head and the other still rummaging through the bag of treasures while gazing at the night sky. A small smirk slid across her face.

Though she did run into some trouble that had come in the form of pirates at Kyrano Island, her treasure hunting trip was worth it. The satisfying feeling of having stolen another batch of treasures rushed through her and the fact that she, 'Cat', had snatched it from the Whitebeard Pirates, an infamous group of pirates that she honestly didn't know much about, and had gotten away with it made her treasure hunt even better.

The woman could just imagine the ticked looks and angry remarks, especially one belonging to a certain commander, causing her to let out a small chuckle. It would have been an amusing sight to see the furious pirates.

Marco, he was the first man that intimidated her in a long time. His sheer strength seemed to emit an aura around him, giving him a different atmosphere than most pirates and the bounty he had on his head proved it. The fight would have proven his strength as well if it wasn't for the fact that he, like her, was holding back the whole entire time.

He was a pirate, she was intimidated by him (a feeling that she hated),he was a creep, and he had try to unmask her, add that all together and Felicia hated him even though she had only met him once. She was glad that she wouldn't see the Whitebeard pirates again; it would be troublesome if she did.

Felicia sighed and felt her hand brush against something cold, the woman took out a lightweight metal that she identified as silver and dangled it in front of her. It was a solid and simple cuff bracelet with not even one single design on it. The woman began to carve on its surface when a small thought popped into her mind.

...

Chun Island was one of the four islands that she frequently visited. Chun Island was her base when it came to treasures. Felicia would hide the treasures she kept on this island in a hidden location. The island was rarely visited by pirates or marines for a reason that wasn't stated; though it was probably because of the fact that Chun was located somewhere near the Calm Belt.

Knowing that the people on the island rarely stole things, Felicia left the a third of her treasure on her boat and headed off to the shop that she usually went to when arriving at Chun.

Felicia shifted the bag of treasures on her shoulder as she walked down the busy street. The woman mentally cursed herself for not taking another street, the one she was walking on was more crowded with people than she liked. The moving bodies that constantly brushed against her, the loud shouts and chatter that rang through her ears, and the occasional glances that she would get annoyed Felicia to no end. She would rather walk through a street with animals; at least they had the decency to be quiet sometimes.

The hunter sighed, if it wasn't for the fact that the shop she went to didn't open at night then she would have been off somewhere quiet, sleeping and bathing in the sunlight.

If only Chun's towns were like Gomorrah, she thought. It would have been nice and convenient for her. Felicia briefly wondered if she should relocate to Kyrano Island but the thing was...she didn't have an eternal log pose for that island and she wasn't sure if there was a shop like the one at Chun's. (Those were facts but also excuses, she was honestly too lazy to move.)

A man who was hurriedly walking through the streets bumped into Felicia, but she held back a hiss, remembering her manners, and instead coldly stared at the man. "S-sorry," he stuttered and quickly ran away.

Felicia mentally rolled her eyes and picked up her pace, wanting to finish one of her tasks so she could get some sleep before night rose. Honestly, she didn't like her sleeping schedule sometimes, it tended to be troublesome and she would miss her hours of sleep most of the time, resulting into pulling an 'all nighter' or in her case an 'all dayer'. But no matter how troublesome it was, she stuck with it, knowing that it was the only way that she could actually sleep.

Sometime later, Felicia arrived at her destination, a small brown wooden shop that stood by itself on the side of a quiet street. She opened the door and entered the shop, hearing the ring of a bell that signaled her entry.

The shop was the same as the last time she saw it: clean, spotless, and neat. The walls were lined with shelves that held the glass display boxed that proudly contained gold, silver, jewels and rare items, all which were neatly arranged. Felicia casually strolled towards the glass counter in front of her and deposited her bag.

The woman looked around while waiting for a certain man to show up. There was a poster on the left side of the wall that listed the values of certain items and on the right side she saw a couple of rare items with price tags displayed on a high shelf. Hearing the sound of footsteps, Felicia glanced towards the direction of where it was coming from and spotted a man.

Tall, lean, and in his mid-fifties, Dennis was a proud owner of Triple Eight, a shop that sold, traded, and bought items, mainly gold, silver, jewels, or rare items. If there was one man that Felicia tolerated (though barely) and trusted, it would be him. Though like every other man, he was once on her suspicion list.

"Look what the cat dragged in," Dennis joked while he opened the bag of treasures.

Felicia, having gotten use to his jokes for the past couple of years, ignored it while he dumped the bag's content carefully on the counter.

"I was thinking that you were never coming back. After all, it's been nine months since I last saw you, longer than you're usual hunting trips for treasure," he said while beginning to organize the pile of riches.

"I spotted a couple of pirates that had some nice bounties and I got sidetracked from time to time," she explained and helped him arrange the goods in their respective group, silver with silver, diamonds with diamonds, gold with gold, and on it went.

"Sidetracked, huh?" Dennis asked with an amused look on his face.

The woman averted her eyes when she saw the look on his face. She knew that he knew that when Felicia said sidetracked that she meant lazing around.

The man chuckled but it quietly died away when he looked at her. "Does this bag of treasures happen to be related to the news?" Dennis questioned suspiciously and examined the goods one by one.

"What news?" she asked with an oblivious tone though she had an idea of what the news was. Felicia had caught a glimpse of the newest issue when she was walking to Triple Eight.

"The news about the Whitebeard pirates. It said they were spotted at an island called Kyrano and that they were hunting for treasure though the people on the island weren't sure, but as usual they caused a ruckus for the marines," he informed while picking up a small ruby.

"No," Felicia lied nonchalantly. Felicia wasn't the type to admit things. Either she would find a loophole in the words that had been said or lie. Never admit. She didn't like to.

Dennis merely let a small tsk, signaling that he had caught her lie. Years of knowing each other didn't go to a waste. "You should check the news more often. Helps you keep updated. Anyway, why the hell do you always give me second grade quality items?" he exclaimed, dropping the subject.

"Got to keep the good stuff for myself," she said with a smirk on her face. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that I left some high quality ones in there."

The man grumbled and muttered while he added up the total amount. "177,777,000 beli for the second grade quality stuff and 122,223,000 for the few high quality items. The total is 300,000,000 beli."

"177,777,000 beli doesn't sound like the price of second quality items," she said with a raised eyebrow, watching the man gather the gold and jewels into a pile. It would have sounded like Felicia was teasing him if it wasn't for the flat tone in her voice.

Dennis let out a huff. "It's because of the fact that there are so many second grade quality items that it's a big amount," he explained though it came out a bit muffled, having gathered the things into his arms, including her treasure bag.

Felicia watched as he left to drop off the goods in the back and retrieve the money. Dennis appeared minutes later and dropped her treasure bag onto the counter. The contents inside having been formerly filled with treasure were now filled with beli.

"Make sure you stay away from the Whitebeard pirates," Dennis warned with a serious look.

The woman didn't say anything but simply picked up the bag and began to leave.

"I'm serious, Felicia. They're not your average pirates. Their captain is one of the Yonkos, emperors of the New World as they say it, they're powerful. Don't mess with them. You'll regret it."

Felicia merely waved and left the shop without looking back. The warning was unnecessary for her. It's not like she would run into the pirates again since she did make a rule to herself to stay away from the pirates she stole from. And the fact that the ocean was a huge place, she could be on one side of the world and the Whitebeard pirates on the other.

...

The black haired woman quietly walked through the dark forest, her only source of light was the moon that was shining brightly. Felicia had gone back to her boat, stashed her beli, slept, and had just recently woken up, taking the goods that she hadn't traded with her. After her trip to Dennis's shop, half of her task was completed. Now she had to complete the other half.

The hunter stopped when she had reached her spot. There in front of her was a giant tree. Towering above the others, the tree was a magnificent sight. It was a lush dark green and the leaves covered the whole top part, hiding the branches and leaving only the brown tree trunk in sight.

Tightening her grip on the bag of her leftover treasures that she had switched places with the beli, Felicia walked towards the tree and stood beneath its leaves. She looked up into the green foliage while her tail appeared behind her. In a split of a second, the cat-like woman jumped up, breaking through the barrier of leaves and landing on a branch.

Through the massive foliage that hid every part of the tree were dozens and dozens of branches. Felicia crouched again and jumped onto another branch, steadily making her way up the tree. As she got higher and higher, the branches became thinner and thinner, to the point where it would have broken under the pressure of a normal human's weight, but Felicia's devil fruit had taken care of that problem.

The woman stopped when she was close to the top and began to walk along the branch towards the hole in the trunk, her hand lightly brushing around the opening in nostalgia. From a distance, the hole would have seemed like any other hole but if a person had looked into the hole, they would see treasure.

When Felicia had first started treasure hunting, she wanted a safe place to store her treasure. She didn't want to hide her treasure in the ground or in a cave. She wanted to hide it somewhere that she liked, that she was comfortable with, and this giant tree was the answer.

It's huge trunk made it a hard to cut down, the roots made it impossible to uproot, the branches were sturdy enough to support her light weight, the foliage covered the tree, and it didn't seem like anyone was going to burn the tree anytime soon, it was perfect for her hiding spot.

After deciding that the tree was going to be it, she had chosen a dangerous height, knowing that no insane human would be willing to climb up that high for they would eventually fall, and carved a big hole into the tree. That was the beginning of her hoard of treasures.

Now the hole was no longer empty when Felicia had first carved it but was now quite filled with treasures and rare items from her past hunts. Noticing that hole was going to be completely filled to the point where the treasure would start peeking out soon, she knew that she would have to carve a new one soon.

Before Felicia emptied her bag of contents, she began to rummage through the hole.

Felicia was lucky that there was wind for her boat whenever she needed to make an escape off an island but she knew that it wouldn't last long. So to be prepared, she grabbed a couple of seashells that had been identified as dials when she had first stolen them. They were quite useful if she ever tended to be stuck in a sticky situation. The woman continued to rummage through the hole until she was satisfied that she had gotten the things she might need and pocketed them.

She then crouched and emptied her bag into the hole, the sound of clings and clangs echoing as the treasure dropped through the hole. When she was done, the hunter tucked the treasure bag into her back pocket, and got up.

Felicia did a quick stretch, relaxing her body and jumped off the eighty-foot high branch. She landed safely on the ground with no broken bones or injuries, her tail curling straight up and a satisfied look in her eyes.

Her task for this island was completed. Her next destination: Qiu Island

...

If there was one island that Felicia couldn't hide herself from, it was Qiu Island. Every citizen knew who she was because of the incident that happened two years ago on the island. Needless to say, it annoyed the woman to no end. She couldn't hide herself and even if she did, there would always be that one person who would recognize her and gaze at her with one of two looks: awe or fear.

Qiu Island was an autumn island and her second most frequently visited island. It wasn't her base and she didn't use it for her treasures. Felicia visited this island because of another reason, though sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if the visit was ever worth of it. The stares from the citizens were annoying and no amount of glaring helped, in fact it made it even worse. The woman now knew why pirates hated to do 'heroic' acts as the people would classify it, it was annoying.

Felicia paused and quietly stood a couple meters away from a medium sized two story building, having spotted a young teenage child sitting on the door steps.

The girl's eyes widened when she spotted Felicia. The girl instantly got up and ran to her, though the child stopped a feet in front of her, looking hesitant. "May I?"

The hunter nodded and she was immediately engulfed into a hug by the girl that had a smile on her face.

"Welcome back, Felicia," a voice said, causing Felicia to look up, spotting a short brown haired woman in front of the doorway.

* * *

**TCP - Chapter 6 Excerpt  
**

**Warning: This small part is unedited and is subjected to change in the next chapter. **

"I was worried about you," the woman said with a frown on her face.

Felicia didn't say anything but instead quietly sat in the closest chair near her, her elbows resting on the table top.

"You're not going to say anything? It's been a year since I last saw you! There was no news about you and you didn't even bother to contact me, _at all_! There's a thing called 'den den mushi'!" the brown haired woman yelled.

"I don't have a den den mushi," Felicia said while she shrugged.

"That's bull crap! I'm pretty sure you had stolen one during one of your many trips! And even if you really didn't have one, you could of borrowed one!" the woman screamed, though quite enough to not wake the sleeping children on the upper floor while she handed Felicia her glass of water.

* * *

**Beta'd By: Everlude**


	6. Chapter 6 with Author's note

Lol, April Fools! Haha, to those of you who read the chapter update from yesterday of course or on the first of April. Hahahaha, sorry, I couldn't help but resist. XD In all honesty, I had this chapter ready and purposefully waited for the day after to post since I wanted to see the reactions of the people who would read the April Fool's chapter. Though some people really fell for it since three people had already de-followed the story. O.O

But anyway, I would like to apologize for not updating so long(seven months, yikes). It's just school had started up and because of the new school program I joined, I've been so busy with homework and then when fall hit, conditioning for track arrived. Then spring arrived and the season had begun. Also this reminds me, I probably won't update in April or May due to the fact that I now have one to two track meets every single week and school is almost over for me, so school and track is my focus right now. Though I'll do my best to write any time possible...when not distracted. XD Also, no excerpt at the end of the chapter. But chapter seven might have one...once posted. XD

**Note: **Again, reminding you, probably won't update in April or May

**Note #2: **I was thinking of posting small things up about TCP (The Cat's Predicaments) on livejournal. Outakes, extra scenes, how it started, character info, etc. If I did this, would you be interested in checking it out? Please let me know in your reviews.

**Note #3:** I'm accepting fanarts! I love them to death and they inspire me, a lot. :D So please, fanart, give me. XD

**Note #4:** If you ever wonder about my current situation or status, check my profile. I update it...frequently...

**Thank you to the following people for reviewing: minatherabbit,Origami44,Shiningheart of ThunderClan, MarcoAce, Lunakio, ToughChick,anime-queen-4ever,Fruitlessberry, Sephira Vanya Estelwen,juniperlei, steel-alchemist, irenia, **and Guest Reviewers: **Kkrocks, Emz.**

Thank you so much for reviewing, especially to those who faithfully reviewed every chapter from the beginning. Whether you were a new reader or old, your reviews kept me motivated to keep writing when I lost inspiration. Especially to you,** Origami44! **And my fantastic beta,** Everlude,** for continuing to beta for me. :)**  
**

**Note #5: **Please leave a review/response/comment. It would mean the world to me. :))

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! I only own my beloved character and plot. :P**

* * *

The Cat's Predicaments

**Chapter 6**: The Cat's Kittens

"Charity," Felicia greeted and nodded in the woman's direction.

The woman who stood at the doorway was of a short stature and possessed a small, round face that narrowed out in the end. She had short brown hair that framed her face which was beginning to form a frown. "I was worried about you," the woman said with a frown fully on her face and a hand on hips that were curvier than Felicia's.

Felicia didn't say anything, but instead quietly continued to stand there with the girl still wrapped around her. She could feel the small shivers coming from the girl though the child didn't make a sound.

Charity sighed and her shoulders slumped. "Come on in. It's cold outside," The woman said and left the doorway.

"Kaya," the hunter called while she gently tapped the child's arm.

The girl, hearing the unspoken command, unwound her arms from around Felicia and took her gloved hand, dragging her inside the medium sized brown building that was the orphanage.

* * *

The orphanage consisted of two floors, and as the child dragged Felicia in, the hunter was immediately hit with a wave of warmth inside and heard the crackle of a fireplace. The entrance of the orphanage led to a spacious living room where there were three couches set into a C that was facing the fireplace with a small round table in the middle. There were also several cushions lining the carpeted floor around the table and a couple in random parts of the room. There was a long mantle lined above the fireplace that held many photo frames with pictures of the orphanages' many inhabitants. The side walls were lined with bookshelves that contained many books and interesting items that were clearly not from the island.

The room was passed by as the small girl pulled Felicia towards the opening of a hallway on the left side of the room that connected to the kitchen.

"Kaya, go upstairs," Felicia said when the little girl had dragged her to the kitchen. The girl hesitated. "Get some sleep. It's too early in the morning for you to be up. You can come back down later when I'm done talking with Charity."

"Will you be here?" Kaya whisper and gazed at Felicia with her big brown pleading eyes.

The woman nodded and watched as the girl ran upstairs to the join the other kids who were sleeping.

Felicia didn't say anything as she walked towards the island set in the kitchen, but instead quietly sat in the middle chair, her elbows resting on the table top while she watched Charity flutter around the kitchen. There was a moment of silence before the woman spoke.

"You're not going to say anything? It's been a year since I last saw you! There was no news about you and you didn't even bother to contact me, at all! There's a thing called 'den den mushi'!" the brown haired woman scolded while she grabbed a glass from a cupboard.

"I don't have a den den mushi," Felicia said while she shrugged.

"That's bull crap! I'm pretty sure you stole one during one of your many trips! And even if you really didn't have one, you could've borrowed one!" the woman yelled, though quiet enough to not wake the sleeping children on the upper floor while she handed Felicia her glass of water.

Charity sighed when Felicia didn't respond and closed her eyes while rubbing her temples.

"So, what brought up the visit?" Charity asked, opening her eyes and standing across from Felicia as she leaned against the kitchen stove.

"Your island was nearby to another I was visiting so I decided to visit," Felicia half-lied nonchalantly. Qui island wasn't really near Chun Island, at all.

"Really? So all the other islands you visited over the past year weren't close to here?" Charity asked with a questioning look.

"Nope," Felicia answered and cut off the woman before she could ask any more questions. "Shouldn't you be sleeping? It's getting pretty late."

"Ha, not today. I barely even get to see you. I'm taking advantage of this time right now, regardless if I'm going to be tired tomorrow."

The hunter let out a small noise of annoyance, knowing that she wouldn't be able to leave until Charity was out cold in bed, but then again, she had forgotten to grab the bag of belis in her boat.

"So, how's bounty hunting going?" Charity questioned.

Before Felicia could answer, her stomach growled causing the hunter to look away uncomfortably. Though she'd known Charity for quite some time, she never really felt fully comfortable with her. Though, it was this way for every person she met, even Dennis, though, he had it harder than Charity.

The brown haired woman laughed and got up from her chair. "Is it lunch or dinner?"

"Dinner," Felicia answered, "please," she finished when Charity gave her a look.

While the shorter woman busied herself in the kitchen, the hunter took out the stack of bounty posters and spread them on the flat surface in front of her.

The hunter shuffled through the many faces plastered on the papers, looking and searching. As Felicia shuffled through the papers, grabbing two with mild interest, one had caught her eye. A man with black hair, sinister brown eyes, and a malicious grin on his face stared back at the hunter as Felicia quietly gazed at the picture with hatred burning furiously in her eyes. The man had definitely changed and grown over the years, but Felicia could still see that he had maintained those malicious looks and intents.

"Your food is ready," Charity called behind her back causing Felicia look up for a brief second. Seeing that the woman was busy with her task, Felicia gathered the papers and shoved them to the side, making room for the food.

The orphanage owner silently settled the food on the island and sat next to her. After a few moments of silence with the woman surveying the bounty posters on the side and Felicia beginning to eat, Charity spoke, "Bounty hunting again? You just got back."

The hunter merely shrugged in response and continued eating, the food quickly disappearing.

"Did you know why Kaya was up so early? She was waiting for you," Charity stated and paused for a moment. "Though it's insane how she suddenly thought you might visit today and decided to stay up so late." Charity muttered and continued on, "I get that bounty hunting is your job, but at least at stay for a bit."

"I am staying for a bit. I'm just getting ready for my next target," Felicia stated calmly after swallowing a morsel of food.

"How long are you staying?"

"Don't know."

"Are you going to help with the kids? They'll be quite excited to see you. Especially when they find out you went bounty hunting again. They'll want to hear the stories."

"My stories aren't for them," Felicia stated coldly.

Though many would've been fooled by the hunter's tone, Charity wasn't. The woman had known Felicia long enough to be able to at least distinguish certain emotions.

"You could always cut out some parts or improvise to make it suitable," Charity suggested with a smile on her face.

"Don't you have something to do?"

"Nope. The children won't be waking up for another three hours. I've already taken care of everything and I don't have to prepare breakfast for an hour. So..." Charity trailed off causing Felicia to raise her eyebrow.

"Tell me about your latest trip! Don't deny that nothing happened except for the usual because I saw the newspaper, and I'm pretty sure you were involved in the incident. Don't deny it!" Charity exclaimed with a child-like excitement and curiosity in her eyes. Despite the fact that she had mother tendencies, she also had a child-like personality sometimes which made it perfect for her when she played with the kids.

"Fine," Felicia muttered though she had a bit of a smile in her eyes.

The hunter cleaned the table of the bounty posters, shoving them back into her messenger bag, and for the next three hours, Felicia told her story in between bites of her dinner and sips of water while Charity cooked for the kids and asked questions.

And just in time, when Felicia was finished with her most recent story, sounds of footsteps began to echo through the house.

"Seems like the children are up," Felicia noted.

"And another day of chaos," Charity stated, "those kids are getting rebellious. It gets harder and harder each day for them to go to school. I practically have to drag them out of the house. Maybe you'll be able to scare them into listening."

"Haha, very funny," Felicia said dryly, giving the shorter woman a look.

"Just saying," Charity laughed.

As Charity left the kitchen and began to set up the long dining table in the other room that was connected to the kitchen by a small hallway with the stairs leading to the second floor, Felicia got up and helped her. After the food was set out and the plates on the table, the woman stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Breakfast is ready!" Charity yelled, causing a stampede of children rushing down the stairs.

"Move out of the way," one shouted.

"You move!"

"Kids! What did I say about running through the house?" Charity scolded, but to no avail, the kids didn't listen.

The woman sighed and ran her hand through her hair, stepping aside and watching the orphanage children rush to the dining room, seeming to let Felicia take care of things.

Felicia stood in front of the eating table looking amusedly at Charity while patiently waiting for the kids.

_One, two, and three._

Right on the mark, a kid appeared and immediately skidded to a stop, having spotted Felicia, causing the other kid behind him to bump into him, and another, after another, causing the first kid to fall, bringing the following ones down with him.

_Like dominos_, Felicia thought.

The kids had experience with Felicia. While Charity was warm and bubbly, Felicia was cold and quiet. Felicia had also put up an intimidating front and knew that she was considered scary for the younger kids and intimidating for the older kids, yet she made sure to be kind and caring...in a way. The older kids were able to tell since they had known her as long as Charity. If Felicia was stern and serious, the kids knew to listen.

"Kids," Felicia said.

"Felicia," they all greeted quietly. They all stood at the entrance of the dining room with Charity behind them, struggling to keep a straight face. Apparently, she finds this hilarious, Felicia thought.

"Did you run through the hallways and down the stairs?"

"Yes."

"Were you supposed to?"

"No."

"What do you say to Charity for not listening?"

"Sorry Charity," the kids all solemnly said as they faced the brown haired woman.

"It's fine," Charity said while she struggled not to laugh.

A small smile slipped onto Felicia's face, but she quickly hid it and coughed, catching the kids attentions.

"Hurry up to your seats. I can hear your stomachs growling, and make sure to clean up after yourselves. And don't cause trouble for Charity, I'll know," Felicia said wryly with an amused look on her face, causing the kids to scramble for a chair.

"Thanks Cat," Charity laughed, no longer able to hold it in.

Felicia nodded in return and headed towards the stairs.

"Still the same room?"

"Yeah."

Felicia silently ran up the stairs and turned towards the smaller left hallway that contained Charity's room, a guest room, and her room that she occasionally stayed at while the hallway in the right contained the many rooms of the children at the orphanage. Though Felicia only dropped by once or twice a year, Charity still insisted that Felicia had her own room. The room was still the same as before. The walls were a soft brown color and the room contained a bed next to the left wall. A table with a lamp was next to it; to the right side of the wall was a door leading to a shower and next to the door was a small dresser. It looked like an ordinary room if it wasn't for the bounty posters lining the front wall and a pile of books stacked on a desk in front of the window in her room. The woman entered the room and dropped her bag on the desk. She quickly grabbed a set of clothes from the drawer and went to shower.

Twenty minutes later Felicia was in bed drying her hair with a towel. The woman was still thinking of how long she was going to stay. Like every trip to here, she only had two things to do and then she was up and gone which meant her days on Qui island lasted a day. Charity had insisted that Felicia stay longer, and she was debating if she should. Felicia continued to think as she lay down on the bed, having thrown her towel on the desk next to the lamp. Maybe an extra hour or two, Felicia thought before she fell asleep on the bed with the sun risen in the sky, preparing the world for another day.

* * *

"Felicia, wake up," a voice called, stirring the hunter from her sleep. "Time for din- breakfast," Charity said.

The blankets moved as Felicia slightly stirred. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Six thirty pm," Charity answered, "hurry and get down here," she told Felicia before leaving the room.

"So early," Felicia grumbled while she got out of bed. The woman slowly stretched and padded across the room, getting ready for the night.

When Felicia walked in the dining room and sat down, the kids tried to discreetly stare at her. Felicia could tell that the kids were wondering what side of Felicia they would see today...and what was she doing eating breakfast in the morning.

"Evening kids," Felicia said with a smile on her face that only ever seemed to appear for the children.

"Good evening Felicia," the kids replied.

Though she didn't like stares from other people, from kids it was a different story. It was quite amusing to Felicia seeing the kids stare at her in shock as she sat down, eating scrambled eggs and bacon while all the others ate what she ate earlier in the morning, pasta and soup.

Everyone began to eat and after a couple minutes of silence, a voice popped up.

"What's she doing eating breakfast? It's dinner time," a kid, a new one, whispered to another kid right next to her, not knowing that Felicia could hear.

"Her sleeping and eating schedule is a bit different from us," the second kid answered, a kid who was with Charity when he was younger and Felicia had first met the woman.

"Oh," the girl said, though Felicia noticed that she still was thinking about it.

"Did you just come back from a bounty hunting trip?" One of the older kids, John, asked, drawing her attention away.

"Yes," Felicia answered while she cut the bacon on her plate.

"Who did you get?" Another kid asked.

"Was he scary?" A girl butted in.

"Just a small pirate, and no, he wasn't that scary," Felicia said with an amused look and chewed on her bacon.

"How much was he worth?"

On the questions went as each kid in the room asked their own question, curiosity and childish awe and wonder filled their voices and eyes. Even the new kids that the woman didn't recognize opened up. It made Felicia smile seeing the kids chattering with all the innocence in the world. Though most of the kids were found in the streets or had run away from home, they still had managed to retain their innocence though some were a bit rougher on the edge than others. Felicia had made sure to tell Charity to check the streets everyday for kids. The woman didn't want them to end up like her. To lose their innocence at such a young age. To become cold and angry, to hate and shun the world. The kids had it lucky. Qui island wasn't as bad compared to other islands.

After finishing breakfast and moving to the living room to answer questions and tell a small and innocent story about one of her many travels, late night had hit and Charity had called kids to go to bed.

"But we don't want to go to bed," Mark, one of the newer kids, whined.

"Yeah," Sarah, another kid, said.

"You guys don't get a choice," Charity told them, "go to bed now. It's already late enough."

The kids groaned and mumbled, but they got up anyway and went up the stairs.

"Night Felicia!" they all shouted before they scrambled up the stairs when they saw Charity coming to scold them for yelling in the house.

Every kid was upstairs, except for one.

"Kaya," Felicia called softly.

"I don't want to go upstairs. You'll leave again," Kaya said, crossing her arms and looking at the woman with a childish serious face.

The hunter let a small smile slip on her face and gestured for the child to come closer, crouching down to her height when the child reached the woman.

"I'll promise I'll stay," Felicia whispered into the child's ear, "but only until an hour before dawn. If you get some sleep, you won't be too tired when you wake up."

Felicia drew back and looked at the child in the eyes and said, her voice soft and having a hint of affection, "so go to sleep, okay?"

The girl immediately nodded her head and rushed upstairs after the other kids.

Charity chuckled. "The girl always seems to listen to you," the brown haired woman noted while moving about to clean the area where the kids sat at earlier, prodding Felicia with questions.

The hunter merely hummed in response and helped Charity clean up. When they were done, Felicia sat on the couch in silence, watching Charity look around.

"It's late," Felicia commented.

Charity looked up and smiled at the hunter, hearing her unspoken suggestion. "I know, but I have one last thing to do. Wait here before you go wander off," Charity said wryly and rushed upstairs.

After a couple of minutes, the woman came back down with a small box in her hand and sat next down to the hunter.

"Here," Charity said, handing the box to Felicia. "I saw this in the market the other day, and I thought about you when I saw it. I know it's not as fancy as the jewelry you see when you go treasure hunting, but I thought you would like it. Plus, I never really got you anything as a thank you gift for all the things you've done since you always seem to disappear before I can even say anything."

The hunter slowly opened the box and inside, nestled in the blue velvet, was two ear cuffs made out of obsidian. The small jewelry gleamed as the light from the fire flickered on it when Felicia lifted one of them out of the box to look at it.

After a small moment, the woman put the ear cuff back in the box and looked up at Charity. "Thank you," she said softly.

Charity nodded and got up from the couch. "Well, I got to go sleep. Night Felicia," The short woman said. The woman looked at Felicia for a moment, and Felicia could sense that she wanted to give her a hug, but Charity didn't, knowing how Felicia was after the years of knowing her.

As the woman, her friend, dare Felicia would say, went upstairs, she left Felicia to her brewing thoughts and the crackle of a fire slowly dying.

* * *

Felicia wandered around the island of Qui, waiting for the time before dawn. Her feet carried her through the very small patch of forest that separated the orphanage from the only town on the island as her thoughts wandered with her fingers rubbing her new ear cuffs thoughtfully. She had put them on the moment she stepped out of the orphanage and begun her wandering. The hunter had put one ear cuff above the one she usually wore, and the other underneath it. Her ear glinted in the moonlight, hinting at the jewelry she wore on it.

Yes, the obsidian ear cuffs weren't as impressive as the usual things she saw, but Felicia could see the well-meant feelings behind the cuffs. She also knew that Charity had put thought into the gift, remembering how much the hunter liked things that gleamed and things that were pretty yet subtle. And...she rarely received gifts. Felicia liked the gift, smiling her small smile when she again touched her new jewelry.

The moonlight shined brightly down on the woman as she left the small patch of forest and walked into the town.

It was well into the night and the only people lingering in the streets were sailors, traveling men, and a few pirates. The hunter quietly stalked through the streets, watching and observing everything. She could see the men eye her as she passed by, the townsfolk looking at her with a bit of a fear tinged in their eyes, and the visitors watching her with wariness, having heard of the rumors of the woman who had once dyed the road red with blood. If it wasn't for the fact that the townsfolk continually stared at her while whispering and indiscreetly pointing fingers at her, the visitors wouldn't of known it was her.

The atmosphere was tense as Felicia continued through, but Felicia didn't blame the townsfolk for shying away from her and having that look in their eyes. She had, after all, had a bloody introduction to the town. Her introduction showing that she was capable of being violent and cruel.

The woman continued her walk out of the town and to the docks where her boat was. Her boat was undisturbed and there were no signs or traces of anyone who had decided to check out her boat. Nothing was missing either. Satisfied that the boat was in the same condition as it was before, the woman went down the stairs of the small wooden vessel which lead straight to the small kitchen and in front of the stoves was a small table with a bag on top. Quickly grabbing the bag and switching it with her own, Felicia went back up the stairs, deciding to skip lunch and run in the forests of the island while waiting for the time to pass and go to the orphanage where a young girl was going to wake up an hour before dawn.

* * *

Felicia lingered about in the orphanage as she waited for the small steps on the stairs to reach to the bottom.

"Felicia!" Kaya exclaimed quietly. "You haven't left yet."

The woman crouched down to the young girl's height. "Of course not. I promised you that I would wait until the hour before dawn, didn't I?"

The young girl nodded, but a frown suddenly appeared on her face. "Do you really have to leave?" the girl asked sadly.

The hunter nodded. "Yes."

"When will I see you again?" Kaya asked.

"I don't know," Felicia answered honestly. She didn't lie to the child. A child like her, having been through hardships that one so young shouldn't have, they learned how to survive and how to detect lies. And Felicia knew that children like Kaya would only hate lies.

The girl's face fell.

"But you and Charity can write letters to me."

"To where? You always wander around," Kaya mumbled.

"You can send it to Chun Island," Felicia said. After all, Chun was the island that she visited most. "Or maybe I'll buy a bird to mail letters to you."

"Yeah!" the girl agreed, her eyes sparkling with the excitement of the new idea. "But would you really write letters to us?"

The woman paused for a moment. "Yes. Yes, I would."

"Promise?" Kaya asked.

"Promise. But not all the time," Felicia said.

"That's fine," the girl agreed, content with the answer though it may not offer much, it was still something.

"I have to go now. There's a bag on the kitchen island; make sure that Charity gets it, okay?"

"Okay," the girl mumbled dejectedly, sad at the fact that Felicia had to go already.

The woman smiled a small smile. "I'll see you next time, Kaya. I'll come and visit for sure."

"Okay," the girl mumbled again.

Felicia chuckled and fished a small item out of her back pocket. "Here. I have a gift for you."

Kaya looked up from the ground, her eyes wide at the small silver cuff bracelet that was now carved into what looked like a silver feather resting in the middle of Felicia's palm.

"Think of it as a promise that I'll come and visit again," Felicia said as the girl took the small bangle.

"And that you'll write letters," Kaya added.

"And that I'll write letters," Felicia confirmed with a small chuckle as she watched the young girl put the bracelet on.

The woman slowly stood up from her crouched position. "Remember what I said about the bag?"

"Make sure that Charity gets it, right?"

"Yes. Goodbye, Kaya."

"Bye Felicia," the girl said.

"Bye girl," Felicia echoed and ruffled the girl's hair.

"See you next time," Felicia said over her shoulder as she walked out the door and disappeared into the forest that was slowly being lighted from the rising sun.

* * *

**Beta'd By: Everlude**

**The most fantastic person in the world. Thank you for sticking with my story and betaing it for so long. And having such great patience with me and for all the advice and encouragement. Thank you. :)**


End file.
